In the first competitive action of the year for the Western men’s basketball team, the white squad defeated the blue squad 78-67 in the 17th annual blue/white men’s intrasquad game at Carver gymnasium on Saturday.

Western senior guard Morris Anderson scored a game-high 22 points for the white team, and Western senior center Zach Bruce added 20 points for the white team.  

Bruce and Anderson scored a combined 29 of the white team's 50 points during the second half, as they pulled away late from a close, back-and-forth style game.

“It is only the first preseason game, but there is a lot of pride that goes into this event.  Nobody wants to lose to anybody else on this team,” Anderson said.  “I think we saw a few things we need to work on, but overall I think everybody will be ready when the season starts.”

The men’s team was split into the two equal squads for the event, and head coach Brad Jackson had the day off from coaching duties on the floor. Assistant coach Tony Dominguez led the blue squad and assistant coach Rob Visser was given control of the white squad.

The game did not count toward the Vikings' record, but carried the consequence for the losing players of having to cook dinner for the winning players at the team dinner after the game.

“I wanted to win for pride mostly, but I also did not want to lose and have to serve those guys dinner,” Anderson said.  “Having them serve us is going to be pretty sweet.”

The white team jumped out the gates quickly and opened up an early lead of 14-6 halfway through the first half, but the blue team closed the gap and took the lead 19-16 with approximately six minutes left in the half.  

The game’s final lead change came when the white team took the lead 22-21 on a layup by Anderson with three minutes to go in the first half.  The white team had the lead 28-25 at halftime after two free throws by Western senior Andrew Ready as time expired.

Both teams shot less than 35 percent for the half, were only combined for just over 50 percent shooting from the free-throw line, and neither team was able to make a three-pointer.  
Anderson led the white team with seven points, and Bruce and Ready both added six points for the white team as well.  

Western senior Michael Duty and sophomore Cameron Severson led the blue team with seven points each, but every player had at least a point for the blue team in the first half.

“We were trying to give every player some time on the floor in this game, because we are still trying to figure out our lineup: the number one guy through the last guy,” Dominguez said.

The blue team was led in scoring by Western senior Derrick Webb, who had 17 of his 19 points in the second half to lead all scoring in the second half.  Duty added 11 points to give him a total of 18 for the game to go along with his game-high 10 rebounds.

“We have to be ready when the season starts this week, so we were all playing hard,” Duty said. “Everybody was putting it on the line today, because we are all fighting for our spot in the lineup and the amount of playing time we will get.” 

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